The Alfred P. Sloan Study of Youth and Social Development
was designed to gather a holistic picture of the adolescent
experience. To understand how young people form ideas about their
future, the study considered not only what adolescents' aspirations
are, but also how they may be influenced by family, peer groups,
schools, and their communities. Data were collected within
adolescents' three major social environments: schools, families, and
peer groups. The study gathered inform... (more info)

The Alfred P. Sloan Study of Youth and Social Development
was designed to gather a holistic picture of the adolescent
experience. To understand how young people form ideas about their
future, the study considered not only what adolescents' aspirations
are, but also how they may be influenced by family, peer groups,
schools, and their communities. Data were collected within
adolescents' three major social environments: schools, families, and
peer groups. The study gathered information from 12 sites over five
years, to examining such research questions as: (1) how young people
of various ages and family backgrounds differ in their conceptions of
work, (2) what learning opportunities families with different economic
circumstances provide for their children with respect to work and
careers, and (3) how schools influence educational expectations and career
formation. Data were collected from focal students using the
experience sampling method (ESM), an in-depth interview, and a battery
of questionnaires. The questionnaires included: (1) the Teenage Life
Questionnaire, a modification of instruments used in the National
Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS:1988-94), (2) a Friends
Sociometric form, which provided detailed information about the
respondents' peer groups and social ties, and (3) the Career
Orientation Survey (COS), which measures respondents' knowledge about
jobs and occupational expectations. Cohort students were also
administered the questionnaires but did not participate in the ESM or
in-depth interviews. All instruments were administered to focal
students in Years 1, 3, and 5. In addition, in Year 2, in-depth
interviews alone were administered to focal students. In years 1, 3,
and 5, a separate group of cohort students were administered the
questionnaires. Parts 1, 2, 6, 7, 11, and 12 consist of the Teenage
Life Questionnaire data. Parts 3, 4, 8, 9, 13, and 14 consist of the
Career Orientation Survey data. Parts 5, 10, and 15 consist of the
Experience Sampling Method data. The in-depth interview component will
be released by ICPSR as restricted data at a later time.

Access Notes

These data are available only to users at ICPSR member institutions. Because you are not
logged in, we cannot verify that you
will be able to download these data.

Dataset(s)

WARNING: This study is over 150MB in size and may take several minutes to download on a typical internet connection.

This study has an in-depth interview component that
will be released by ICPSR as restricted data at a later time.

Methodology

Sample:
Multistage, stratified, clustered sampling design.

Weight:
none

Mode of Data Collection:
self-enumerated questionnaire

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2007-07-20

Version History:

2013-10-22 This collection has been updated to include question text in the DDI files and PDF codebooks.